I never thought there needed to be an overt statement either, but some people have thrown little tantrums from the beginning that there were so many lesbians but no gay men. As far as the "vilification" of the gay women in the series, I don't think that was how RJ meant to present it. To me, it was, instead, a statement about the anti-man culture at the WT and how it affected certain women. In the beginning, he seemed to want to show the Red Ajah as a bunch of man haters so we would never suspect that someone like Pevara would be hidden within their ranks. But that's just my take on it... *shrugs*

As for why I think Narishma would've been a good gay character, it's mainly because he's bonded to Merise and it would've added a surprising twist. Here she is, Mistress Sadist from Hell, with her new boytoy-slave, Narishma. We see glimpses of the two of them, with her treating him like a total slave and him eating up the humiliation and abuse like someone's feeding him filet mignon, but we see a little flash of a spine when he told the rebels off despite Merise admonishing him (and making it seem she'd beat the shit out of him later for it). It would've been an interesting twist to see a Merise scene where she's confused about what to do because Narishma has "changed" in her eyes, then him coming to her and flat out telling her that he couldn't be her boytoy anymore and that he had true feelings for someone else...a man. It would've been worth watching her head explode, if nothing else. I really can't stand that woman, and she made me hate Narishma as well...having a scene like this would've made me like him more and, if she hadn't been a complete douche about it, it might have been a nice scene to show that her character has a heart and isn't just obsessed with beating men into submission.